“From the very first day I stumbled upon this subject, the stories on the fringes of the mining world have interested me the most – not the stories of the mines themselves but the stories of those who stomped beneath the earth each morning, their tales of danger and debauchery, the myths, legends and folklore that exist in and around those mines. There is no shortage of tales like this from South America.”
Joel Griffett – Long Road to Nowhere
In this book Joel Griffett sets out to follow in Trevithick’s footsteps through Latin America, well, to try to because that is not as easy at it might at first sound! This adventure, or madcap idea, will take him on a journey of 5000 miles chasing rumours and vague historic references.
We know that the hero of Cornish engineering, and in so many ways Cornwall’s national hero, arrived in Peru in February 1817 but we know very little else. He wrote two letters home that same year and then nothing, he just disappeared for 11 years. He did eventually return home to his family in Cornwall but what exactly had happened in those lost years remains a mystery. Trevithick himself wrote some foggy perhaps even misleading notes about his time away, but these amount to little more than some vague tales of fortunes won and lost.
To add to the confusion it was a time of deep political and social turmoil in South America making the task of discovering this one man’s movements all the more difficult, so can Joel bring light to this “historical black hole”?
“In keeping with the spirit of Trevithick I decided there was only one way to put this mystery to bed: I had to follow him to Latin America.”
Though scrupulously well researched and full of historical fact, this is not really a history book, this is the story of a journey of discovery. A modern trip following routes from the past. Like so many Cornishmen before him who found themselves on foreign soil Joel is taking a leap of faith into the unknown, hoping against hope to find treasure.
He is a Cornishman experiencing the same culture shock, the same communication issues, the same indecision and disappointment but also finding the joy, wonder and freedom that uncertainty and discovery brings.
Joel’s plan is to travel up the coast of South America and onto the isthmus of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, via Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Columbia, describing the vast scenery and the people he meets in the various outpost towns or while hitchhiking, hunting for any trace of Trevithick. Not everything goes according to plan . . . But importantly the book doesn’t just focus solely on one man, it delves into the often dark realities of what it meant to be a miner abroad in the 19th century and the uncomfortable realities of what that in turn meant for the local populations.
The search for the ghost of Trevithick was never going to be an easy one but the thrill of finding Cornish names on headstones in a backstreet graveyard in the rough coastal town of Valparaiso makes up for that. The names, like waving flags that signal to us over the thousands of miles and the hundreds of years that we were here – Rowe, Pascoe, Jory, Trevena and William Bunster “a Falmouth Man”.
And the often fruitless search in Chile actually provides space for the discovery of other fascinating Cornish characters.
A highlight is Joel uncovering the story of the prospector George Hicks in the Atacama Desert, one of the most barren places on the planet. A Newquay man born in 1833, who Griffett describes as “strange and belligerent”, Hicks worked in the Chilean nitrate industry but also became embroiled in (maybe even started!) the War of the Pacific in 1879.
Amazingly he is still a well known character in Chilian history, his name is familiar to the average man on the street and he has left a lasting legacy there.
After arguably causing chaos Hicks returned home to Cornwall a very rich man and built himself a mansion in Newquay.
Another stand out character is Robert Harvey who married a local woman, was appointed “Inspector General of Saltpetre” by the Chilian government, acquired small fortune and retired to the countryside to live out his days in luxury. And then there is the sobering story of the Samuel Lean and the Jose brothers who bought mines near Tocopilla and were caught up in a violent mutiny.
Long Road to Nowhere is a fascinating and enjoyable mix of travelogue, cultural discussion and historic exploration. If you have any interest in the history of mining or the Cornish diaspora then this book is for you. If you read it with a mind open to wherever this journey might take you like the author did, then you will no doubt enjoy it as much as I did – and tantalising it is only ‘Part One’, we are only part way through this adventure . . . There is much more to come I feel.
Author’s Note: I was not paid for this review but I did receive a copy of the book.
Further Reading
Death in Arizona – how a Cornish miner came to die in the desert
Review – The Granite Kingdom by Tim Hannigan
Review: Cornish Mysteries – Charlotte MacKenzie
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Interesting story!